Green Lasagna

For a recent food share (a bunch of people each bring a dish that we divide up and share), I brought a vegetarian lasagna.  It was a bit of an adventure, as I didn't set out with an exact dish in mind. Instead, a pasta dish with homemade ricotta and a variety of vegetables evolved after cataloging what I had in the fridge.  A couple of people from the event asked for the recipe, and I while I don't have a recipe, I figured I could try to recompile the steps -- sorry if the amounts aren't very exact.  I also don't have any pictures, but it was very green.

It seemed easiest to capture this in a post, and to pass along the link. Please let me know if you try any part of this!

Green Lasagna

homemade lasagna (dough consisted of 5 eggs, and around 3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour), or enough to get 4+ layers in a 9x13" baking dish.
1.5 cups ricotta (based on smitten kitchen's recipe)
1/2 onion, diced
5-6 cups kale, stalks cut out, and roughly chopped (most of a bundle that I got from Meijer)
1 cup green beans, cut into 1" pieces
1/2 tsp garlic powder (I would have used garlic, but didn't have any on hand)
1 cup macadamia nuts, toasted and rough chopped (I personally thought this was a little too strong in the end, so would try a milder nut next time, perhaps almonds?)
1/3 cup olive oil
3-4 cups baby spinach, tightly packed
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
1/2 cup tomatoes (I used a handful of cherry tomatoes)
1/3 cup water
2 cups Parmesan cheese, shredded
salt
pepper

1. If you make ricotta from scratch, I'd do that first, because it takes like an hour to drain.
2. If you make pasta from scratch, I made the dough and stuck it in the fridge for an hour.  I made the kale mixture before rolling out the dough into sheets in my pasta maker.
3. Kale Mixture
1. In a large skillet, with a tablespoon of oil on medium heat, saute the diced onions.
2. When onions are translucent, pack all that kale in there and sprinkle with salt.  It looks like a huge amount, but it all wilts down pretty quickly.  I put a lid on the pan to speed up the wilting.  
3. After a while, I also threw in green beans and garlic powder.  If I had real garlic, I probably would have thrown that in soon after the onion. I thought about throwing in some mushrooms as well, but I think I got distracted, and didn't.  Sprinkle with pepper.  
4. It's pretty much done after the kale gets floppy.  I don't know if you can overcook kale, since I tend to like my veggies a medium-rare.  Just set it aside and let cool.  By the way, since the pasta and ricotta aren't really salted, it's okay if the mixture is on the salty side to even out in the final dish.
4. Pesto-inspired Sauce
1. In a blender, drop in the olive oil and nuts.  Blend on high (I like 'liquefy', if that makes a difference) until it smooths out.  
2. Throw in the baby spinach a handful at a time so that it all blends well.
3. When the sauce started to look too thick, I threw in some tomatoes.  
4. Add a cup of the Parmesan and red pepper flakes. Keep adding spinach.
5. I also watered it down with some water. I was going for a pesto consistency, or like a gravy.  Not too thick because the pasta will soak up a lot of the liquid.
6. I probably threw in a tablespoon of salt at this point as well, but do this to taste. It should be a little too salty, but nothing crazy. Add pepper to this as well.
7. You should end up with 3-4 cups of smooth sauce.
5. Boil a huge pot of water and cook your pasta.  Since I had homemade pasta, they were quite wide.  I cut them to the length of my glass dish, and cooked them a couple at a time, for about 3-5 minutes.  You could probably cook all the pasta at once, but this worked for me because I could fish out cooked noodles, and throw a couple more in while I constructed the next layer of the lasagna.
6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
7. Just keep layering the ingredients in a 9x13" baking dish, here's a guess of what I did from the bottom up:
1. sauce (to keep the pasta from sticking to the dish)
2. pasta
3. ricotta
4. kale
5. 1/2 cup parmesan
6. pasta
7. sauce
8. kale
9. pasta
10. ricotta
11. kale
12. sauce
13. pasta
14. ricotta
15. sauce
16. 1/2 cup parmesan
8. Bake for half an hour - since everything's cooked, you're really just getting things to melt together.  I think the pasta got puffier during this time, but not sure if it's because it was fresh.  

I think that's it!  Hopefully, I didn't miss any big ingredients.  I think if I attempt this again, things I would change: more parmesan + ricotta cheese, less nuttiness, maybe a more melty cheese on top, maybe chunks of tomatoes instead of blending them all in the sauce.